Flipkart's new CEO Binny Bansal has bridged the jock-geek divide with ease

With a new fiscal around the corner, there are challenges, and opportunities, aplenty for Bansal, as he begins to steer Flipkart’s fortunes.Biswarup Gooptu | ET Bureau | January 12, 2016, 07:45 IST

With a new fiscal around the corner, there are challenges, and opportunities, aplenty for Bansal, as he begins to steer Flipkart’s fortunes.On most college campuses, the divide between the sporty 'jocks' and the bookish 'geeks' is often a chasm too wide to cross. But Binny Bansal, co-founder of India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart, and now its new chief executive, appears to have bridged it with ease.

The 33-year-old, who, in this age of social media, has managed to largely stay under the radar, not only holds a degree in computer science and engineering from IIT-Delhi, but the Chandigarh-born Bansal also captained his school's basketball and football teams.

So far, through Flipkart's eight-year journey, Binny has been the other 'Bansal', compared with the more visible profile of co-founder and college mate Sachin Bansal (the two are not related). On Monday, as Flipkart announced the elevation of Binny to the chief executive's seat at India's most-valued startup, the back-seat role is now set to become a thing of the past.

"He is a shy man, but that often works to his advantage," said Prateek Srivastava, founder and chief executive of talent acquisition and advisory firm Basil Advisors who has been mentored by the Flipkart co-founder over the past few years. "Binny is possibly the most calm person I know, and has an outstanding ability to clear away the noise, and focus on the signal itself."

Before taking over as CEO of Flipkart, Bansal served as chief operating officer at the Bengaluru-based company, overseeing functions, such as supply chain and logistics, critical to the company's supernova-like growth, as it engages in a bruising battle for supremacy in India's lucrative e-commerce sector.

Former colleagues rate him very highly for his ability to connect with people across ranks.

"Unlike a lot of the big names, (Binny) is extremely approachable. You expect to be intimidated, but that just disappears almost immediately," said Xitij Kothi, founder and chief executive of on-demand shipping company Parcelled, a former employee of Flipkart who now counts the online retail company as one of its clients. "He (Binny) is very sorted, very logical and very ambitious," he said.

With a new fiscal around the corner, there are challenges, and opportunities, aplenty for Bansal, as he begins to steer Flipkart's fortunes.

But it may come as no surprise that the man, who is believed to be partial to the works of authors Salman Rushdie and Stieg Larsson, has already charted out the company's course in his inimitable way.